Member News

After a Covid-19-induced pandemic hiatus of 3 years, Conference Interpreter Services, (CIS) was privileged to win the provision of language and accessibility interpreting service at the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held from 18 – 22 September 2022 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.  APMCDRR was presented by the United Nations Office of Disaster or Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and hosted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Australian Government.

Dr Yvonne Hu, Managing Director of CIS, headed a large contingent of language professionals who provided simultaneous interpreting service covering English, French and Mandarin as well as Auslan and International Sign languages at APMCDRR in 3 streams/parallel sessions in addition to the plenaries and opening and closing ceremonies.

APMCDRR is the largest and most significant international conference held in Australia since 2019.  It was attended by over 3500 delegates of which 2500 attended in person at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.  Official Ministerial delegations from 36 countries attended, as did 12 Australian Ministers.

Following the successful conclusion of the Conference, Brisbane-based PCO, Carillon Conference Management Proprietor and Director, Client Relations, Ashley Gordon, wrote:

“Please accept our sincere thanks for so efficiently organising and managing the interpretation of all major sessions into French and Mandarin as well as AUSLAN and ISL sign languages.  This was a major undertaking, and we were pleased to have someone of your calibre in charge of language services at the Conference.

“We understand this was the very first conference in Australia to offer AUSLAN and ISL and thank you for making this possible.”